Athens Energy Forum: 'There is more natural gas' in the East Med - IBNA

16-02-2018, 09:37

Nefeli Tzanetakou

Energy is the reason why U.S. ambassador to Greece, Geoffrey R. Pyatt, went to Ankara yesterday, Thursday, said Steven Bitner, an economist at the US Embassy in Athens, speaking at the Athens Energy Forum conference.

The latest developments in the Eastern Mediterranean region due to Ankara's choices have been a cause for concern.

The goal, as agreed by all participants at the Athens Energy Forum, as gas demand will increase steadily in the coming years, is transnational co-operation so that all involved sides make the most of the energy game in progress in the Eastern Mediterranean.

However, the remaining "thorns" are the Cyprus issue, the war in Syria, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Greece gets two binding bids in gas grid sale - REUTERS

FEBRUARY 16, 2018 / 7:01 PMReporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Additional reporting by Stephen Jewkes in Milan; Editing by Karolina Tagaris and Jane Merriman

ATHENS, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Greece has received two binding bids for a 66 percent stake in its gas grid operator DESFA, the Greek privatisation agency (HRADF) said on Friday, a sale that is a key condition of the country’s international bailout.

The agency said bids were submitted by a consortium of Italy’s Snam, Spain’s Enagas Internacional and Belgium’s Fluxys, and a consortium of Spain’s Regasificadora del Noroeste (Reganosa), Romania’s Transgaz and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

Friday’s deadline for binding bids comes ahead of a euro zone finance ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Monday which will assess Greece’s bailout progress and decide on disbursing more bailout loans.

A share purchase agreement and a shareholders’ agreement for DESFA are due to be signed by April for the sale to conclude by June, before Greece exits its third bailout in August.

First private sector LNG import license to be issued at the end of Feb -sources - ENTERPRISE

Tarek El Molla interviewed by CNBC - Feb 2018 Egypt

Thursday, 15 February 2018

New natgas regulator to issue first LNG import license before the end of Feb? The newly-established natural gas market regulator is expected to issue the first LNG import license to the private sector before the end of February, when its board meets for the first time, sources close to the matter tell Al Shorouk. While it remains unclear which company will make the first draw, we had heard last year that EGAS gave BB Energy, Fleet Energy, and Qalaa Holdings’ TAQA Arabia preliminary approval on natural gas import licenses, following the issuance of the Natural Gas Act, which reduces the state’s role to regulator and opens the market to the private sector. Four other unnamed companies are reportedly also seeking import licenses.

Fees for using state infrastructure also to be announced: The board, whose full lineup will be announced next week, will also discuss the fees private sector players will have to pay to use the state’s natural gas grid under the act, the sources also said. News of the meeting comes one day after Ismail Cabinet issued the executive regulations to the Natural Gas Act, officially bringing it into effect. Oil Minister Tarek El Molla, who will chair the board, had previously said that the state will fully exit the market by 2022.

Egypt says signs seismic survey deal with Schlumberger - REUTERS

FEBRUARY 14, 2018 / 1:47 PM

Reporting by Ehad Farouk; Writing by Sami Aboudi, editing by David Evans

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has signed a deal with oilfield services company Schlumberger to conduct a seismic survey in the Gulf of Suez, the oil ministry said on Wednesday, part of efforts to encourage firms to invest in exploration work in the area.

The oil ministry announced an agreement with an international company on Monday to conduct a seismic survey of the Gulf of Suez to attract exploration investment, but did not identify the company and gave no details.

The deal, signed on the sidelines of an energy conference in Cairo, allows Schlumberger to start work on the survey.

The ministry did not give the value of the deal.

FDI in oil and gas sector has hit USD 10 bn so far this fiscal year; El Molla sounding the right note on payments to IOCs, but what about mid-sized players? - ENTERPRISE

Wednesday, 14 February 2018

FDI in oil and gas sector up to USD 10 bn this year: Investment by international oil companies reached USD 10 bn so far in FY2017-18, Oil Minister Tarek El Molla said in an interview with Al Borsa. This will likely increase, as the ministry plans to issue exploration tenders, including in the East Mediterranean and in the Nile Delta region sometime in 2H2017-18, said El Molla. The ministry plans to float tenders in the West Mediterranean once seismic mapping of the area is complete and a marketing strategy for the field has been developed. He added that the Red Sea and South Egypt areas will also see tenders for the very first time once geological data has been collected.

El Molla once again reassured IOCs that Egypt is committed to paying its arrears, noting that they now stand at USD 2.3 bn since the last USD 2 bn payment was made in June 2017. He noted that these were lowest levels of IOC-debt since 2013. (The question remains, though: What about small- and mid-sized players, who have seen their receivables balloon at the same time as the global majors are being paid out?)

Kuwait Energy Announces Oil Discovery at Area A, Egypt - KUWAIT ENERGY

Kuwait City – 13 February 2018

Kuwait Energy is pleased to announce an oil discovery in the Area A concession situated in the Eastern Desert, Egypt.

The South Kheir-1X (SK-1X) well spud on 11 December 2017 and tested successfully on 28 January 2018 at an initial oil flow rate of 2,452 barrels of oil per day (bopd) from the Hamman Faraun MBR/Belayim formation at 128/64-inch choke size. On 6 February 2018 the well stabilized at an oil rate of 1,900 bopd on 64/64-inch choke size.

Abby Badwi, Chief Executive Officer of Kuwait Energy, said:

“I am pleased to announce this oil discovery, which is a direct result of our technical team reprocessing old 2D/3D seismic and identifying drillable exploration opportunities. The Area A concession has been producing since the 1960s and this discovery demonstrates Kuwait Energy’s ability to continue to find hydrocarbons in mature fields. Kuwait Energy is proud of its track record of around 50% exploration success rate in Egypt. These achievements could not have been possible without the ongoing support of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, General Petroleum Company (GPC) and our non-operator partner Petrogas.”

Kuwait Energy holds a 70% revenue interest and is the operator of the Area A concession under a Service Agreement with GPC while Petrogas holds 30%.

Egypt issues regulations allowing private sector gas imports - REUTERS

FEBRUARY 13, 2018 / 5:38 PM

Reporting by Momen Saeed Attallah. Writing by Eric Knecht. Editing by Jane Merriman

CAIRO, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Egypt has issued long-awaited executive regulations that will allow the private sector to import natural gas directly, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office on Tuesday.

Egypt’s parliament last year passed a law establishing a gas regulatory authority that the government hopes will attract greater private sector participation in the country’s rapidly expanding gas sector.

The executive regulations issued on Tuesday make this law active.

Eni CEO: Cypriot gas reservoir could contain 230 BCM - GLOBES

13 Feb, 2018 10:53
Sonia Gorodeisky

Claudio Descalzi, CEO of Italian energy giant Eni, announced yesterday that the new gas reservoir discovered by Eni and French energy company Total off the coast of Cyprus could contain more than 230 BCM of gas, and contains not less than 170 BCM. Speaking at a press conference in Cairo, he said that the geological structure of the Calypso field was similar to that of the Egyptian Zohr field, which Eni developed.

Descalzi added that the region could become a natural gas power if everyone pooled their resources. "The new reservoir may be connected to Zohr, depending on its dimensions," he said. Assuming that it is not substantially larger than 230 BCM, the newly discovered reservoir is medium-sized by Israeli standards, between the size of the Karish and Tanin reservoirs and that of Tamar.

Descalzi: Calypso 1 holds minimum 6-8 tcf - ENTERPRISE

Tuesday, 13 February 2018

Production from the Zohr offshore gas field will reach 2.9 bcf/d by mid-2019, said Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi at the conference. The goal was to reach output of 1.8-2 bcf/d by the end of 2018 and then ramp up to 2.9 bcf/d by mid-2019, he added, according to Reuters.

Descalzi also spoke on the potential giant discovery in Cyprus’ Calypso 1 reservoir, saying that an appraisal well would have to be drilled to understand the real volumes there and that Eni would decide alongside France’s Total when to commit to that campaign. Asked whether it is believed to hold around 6-8 tcf, Descalzi said: “It could be more or in that range… for sure it cannot be less, but we have to understand it … It’s a good find that has merit to go ahead with additional investment.” He did not mention Turkey’s latest acts of aggression to hinder the development of Block 6.

Energean extends Prinos development offshore Greece - OIL & GAS JOURNAL

HOUSTON, Feb/12/2018
Tayvis Dunnahoe, OGJ Exploration Editor

Energean Oil & Gas will drill as many as 25 wells and install two platforms as part of an investment program on the Prinos license offshore northeastern Greece. The $180-million investment will increase production from Prinos and Prinos North oil fields through 2021, as well as develop Epsilon oil field.

Energean announced the plan as an extension of the Prinos long-term offtake agreement with BP Oil International Ltd. through Nov. 1, 2025. The group’s Prinos basin oil production is currently sold to BP under the offtake agreement, which was originally signed in 2013 and covered the period until July 31, 2021. The 4-year extension will safeguard the group’s cash flow, Energean said.

The Energean Force offshore drilling rig will execute the proposed development wells, and the GSP Jupiter jack up rig will drill the first three Epsilon wells.

Energean also plans to develop its Katakolon field alongside the Prinos development. In September 2017, the operator said drilling and production would commence in 2019-20 pending government approval later this year

Eni Says To Produce 2.9 Bcf Per Day From Zohr Field By Second Half 2019 - RIGZONE /REUTERS

Monday, February 12, 2018

Reporting By Eric Knecht and Nadine Awadallah; Writing By Maha El Dahan; Editing by Adrian Croft

CAIRO, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Production from Egypt's huge Zohr offshore gas field in the Mediterranean will reach 2.9 billion cubic feet per day by mid-2019, Italy's Eni said on Monday.

Speaking at an industry event in Cairo, CEO Claudio Descalzi said the goal was to reach output of 1.8 bcf to 2 bcf per day by the end of 2018 and then ramp up to 2.9 bcf per day by mid-2019.

Discovered in 2015 by Eni, the field contains an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Descalzi confirmed that by mid-2019, seven trains would be operating.

Egypt has been seeking to speed up production from recently discovered fields, with an eye to halting imports by 2019 and achieving self-sufficiency.

The country's petroleum minister said on Monday Egypt's current gas production stood at 5.5 billion cubic feet per day.

BP begins production from Egypt’s Atoll gas field seven months ahead of schedule - BP

12 February 2018

BP today announced the start of gas production from the Atoll Phase One project, offshore Egypt. The project, in the North Damietta concession in the East Nile Delta, was delivered seven months ahead of schedule and 33% below the initial cost estimate.

The project is now producing 350 million cubic feet of gas a day (mmscfd) and 10,000 barrels a day (bpd) of condensate. Gas production from the field is directed to Egypt’s national grid.

Atoll is the first new project to come into production for BP in 2018, adding to the series of higher-margin projects successfully brought online over the past few years. The 13 projects that started-up through 2016 and 2017 provided more than 500,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day (boed) of new net production capacity and total net production from BP’s new projects is now expected to be 900,000 boed by 2021.

BRIEF-Energean, BP extend long-term offtake agreement for Prinos to 2025 - REUTERS

FEBRUARY 12, 2018 / 12:28 PM
Reporting By Karolina Tagaris

Energean says:

• Extends long-term offtake agreement for Prinos oil field with BP by four years until Nov. 2025

• Current agreement signed in 2013

• Extension helps safeguard cash flow 

SOCAR to keep on diversifying its business portfolio in Turkey - MENAFN / AZER NEWS

2/12/2018 3:34:09 AM
Kamila Aliyeva

Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR will continue to diversify its business portfolio and make new investments in Turkey in the future, the company told Trend and Azernews.

SOCAR has invested in several countries, as well as in Turkey during the last decade in order to optimize its revenues and create added value for Azerbaijan's economy, the company noted.

"The modernization and reconstruction of Petkim Petrochemical Complex and the construction of Petlim container port have already been completed successfully and we are happy to announce that two of our strategically important projects in Turkey, namely the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Star Oil Refinery will be commissioned this year," SOCAR said.

All of these projects are a part of SOCAR's vertical integration strategy, according to the company.

Energy group DEA to invest $500 mln in Egypt oilfields - REUTERS

CAIRO, FEBRUARY 11, 2018 / 9:46 AM

Energy group DEA plans to invest nearly $500 million in developing its oilfields in Egypt over the next three years, its chief executive office said.

“We intend to pump around $500 million over the next three years in Egypt to develop the West Delta, DIsouq and the Gulf of Suez fields,” Maria Moraeus Hanssen told journalists in Cairo on Saturday evening.

The Hamburg-based company has been involved in exploration and development for oil and gas in Egypt since 1974. It is a partner of BP in the West Nile Delta gas fields.

The need to import gas has now become urgent - CYPRUS MAIL

FEBRUARY 11, 2018 Charles Ellinas

THE European Commission (EC) agreed to partially fund the cost of infrastructure to enable Cyprus to import LNG. This was one of the 17 projects selected under the framework of the European support programme for trans-European infrastructure Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) on 25 January.

The specific project is known as CyprusGas2EU and its purpose, according to the EU list of projects, is to ‘remove internal bottlenecks in Cyprus to end isolation and to allow for the transmission of gas from the Eastern Mediterranean region.’

In fact, as far as Cyprus is concerned, the main purpose of the project, at least initially, is to enable the import of LNG for power generation. The island must switch its electricity generation from burning heavy fuel oil (HFO) to natural gas by 2020 if it is to avoid hefty fines by the EC.

If at a later stage, sufficient gas discoveries are made and if it is commercially feasible to build a greenfield LNG liquefaction plant at Vasilikos, the LNG import facilities could be modified to facilitate export of LNG.

The EC appears to understand and support this position.

“Extensive strain of gas” discovered off Cypriot coast - ENTERPRISE

Sunday, 11 February 2018

“Extensive strain of gas” discovered off Cypriot coast: President Abdel Fattah El Sisi held a call with re-elected Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades on Thursday to discuss cooperation “under agreements signed by them or those with Greece,” said a statement from Ittihadiya. Reading between the lines, this is a reaffirmation of the Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ) demarcation agreement, which Turkey’s foreign minister had called “illegal” a few days earlier. Turkey’s statement came after reports started emerging last week that the consortium was on the precipice of a major discovery at the Calypso reservoir in Block 6 off the coast in Cyprus.

On that front, Eni and Total discovered an extensive strain of natural gas southwest of Cyprus, Cypriot Energy Minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis said, according to Reuters. “An extensive column of clean natural gas was discovered in … the Cypriot EEZ.” The geology is similar to that at the Zohr supergiant field.

In other East Med gas disputes, Lebanon signed its first offshore oil and gas exploration and production agreements for two blocks, including a block disputed by neighboring Israel, with Total, Eni and Russia’s Novatek, Reuters reports.

Turkey slams Cyprus for gas search, blocks rig with warships - CNBC / ASSOCIATED PRESS

11 FEB 2018

TEKMOR Note: For a nation that does not allow its own 20 million Kurds to speak even their native language Turkey sure goes out of its way to protect the "rights" of a minority of another country. We predict that exploration activities will resume soon, for two reasons: first, Turkey's arguments have no basis in international law whatsoever; second, Cypriot finds are de-facto EU finds and vital for EU's energy security & diversification strategy.

Cyprus was split into an internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north in 1974.

The Turkish ministry said the Cyprus government was acting like "the sole owner of the island" and warned it would be responsible for any consequences.

Turkey's foreign ministry has criticized Cyprus for a "unilateral" offshore hydrocarbons search after Turkish warships prevented a rig from reaching an area off Cyprus where it's to start exploratory drilling for gas.

In a statement Sunday, the ministry said Greek Cypriots were disregarding the "inalienable rights on natural resources" of Turkish Cypriots and jeopardizing the region's stability.

Cyprus was split into an internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north in 1974. The Turkish ministry said the Cyprus government was acting like "the sole owner of the island" and warned it would be responsible for any consequences.

Turkey also urged foreign companies not to support the Cyprus' government's activities.

Italy's ENI, France's TOTAL and ExxonMobil of the U.S. are licensed to search for hydrocarbons off Cyprus' southern coast.

Turkey and the Law of the Sea: some facts - CYPRUS MAIL

FEBRUARY 11, 2018
Andrew Jacovides

IN HIS interview with “Kathimerini” on February 4, 2018, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavuşoğlu asserted certain positions on the Law of the Sea in relation to Cyprus, which cannot remain unanswered.

The legal position of Cyprus on the Law of the Sea is solidly based on the provisions of UNCLOS III of December 10 1982, in which the Republic actively participated.

Article 121, Regime of Islands, expressly provides in Paragraph 2 that “the territorial sea, contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf of an island are determined in accordance with the provisions of the Convention applicable to other land territory”.

This negates the Turkish position that these zones of maritime jurisdiction should be determined by criteria such as size, population, geomorphology, etc. (Legislative History, Article 121, published by the UN Secretariat).

Similarly, Articles 122 and 123, “Enclosed or Semi-enclosed Seas”, negate the Turkish proposal that special rules should apply in such areas in terms of maritime delimitation and jurisdiction. On the basis of these and the other provisions of the Convention, Cyprus and the vast majority of states, as well as the European Union, signed and ratified UNCLOS III, thereby lending to its provisions the force of customary law.

Saipem 12000 will remain in position until the situation is resolved, ENI spokesman tells CNA - CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

CYPRUS/Nicosia 11/02/2018 09:24 CNA - Maria Myles

A vessel, conducting drilling operations on behalf of Eni in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone, will remain in position until a situation, created by Turkish military activity in the area of the Eastern Mediterranean, is resolved, a spokesman for ENI has told CNA.

The spokesman also said that the vessel Saipem 12000 has planned drilling operations on behalf of ENI in block 3 in the Republic of Cyprus’ EEZ.

“Eni can confirm that on Friday afternoon the Saipem 12000 vessel had to stop the transfer journey to a new location as it was stopped by Turkish military ships with the notice not to continue because there would be military activities in the destination area,” a spokesman from ENI told CNA last night.